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Trump has done it again. That much is clear. He has outmaneuvered and out-thought everyone else, and did what many others assumed to be impossible.
But what exactly has he done?
On Wednesday morning, during his trip to Saudi Arabia, Trump met with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who from 2017 until January of this year, was known as Abu Mohammad al-Julani. Al-Sharaa was the leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the “Syrian Liberation Group,” a Sunni jihad group that had been linked to al-Qaeda and was working to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
In January 2025, HTS finally attained its goal. Assad fled to Russia. Al-Julani took control in Damascus and announced that he was establishing a regime that would respect the rights of all Syrians. He insisted that he had broken with al-Qaeda years before, and to signify that he was a new man, he shed his nom de guerre and reverted to his birth name. He trimmed his beard, took off his fatigues, and donned a suit.
Yet almost immediately, al-Sharaa’s attempts to construct a new image for himself foundered upon harsh reality. His forces were involved in mass killings of members of the Alawite sect. Since Bashar Assad was an Alawite, this sect was associated with the old regime. As recently as March 7, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz declared that al-Sharaa was behind it: “Al-Julani took off his galabiya, put on a suit, and presented a moderate facade. Now, he has removed the mask, revealing his true face: a jihadist terrorist from the Al-Qaeda school, committing atrocities against the Alawite civilian population.”
Al-Sharaa, however, condemned the killings and vowed to punish those responsible, even if they were his own men, saying: “Syria is a state of law. The law will take its course on all. We fought to defend the oppressed, and we won’t accept that any blood be shed unjustly, or goes without punishment or accountability, even among those closest to us.”
How since is al-Sharaa? Is he still a jihadist, practicing Muhammad’s dictum, “War is deceit”? Or does he genuinely wish to establish a regime in Syria that will ensure the rights of all people? Donald Trump is giving him a chance to put up or shut up.
Trump made it clear throughout the 2024 presidential campaign: he was determined to end the cycle of endless wars and establish a new era of peace. He repeatedly made it clear that this would involve challenging what the foreign policy establishment has long held to be unquestionable truths, and finding new ways to reach accords with previously hostile entities based on common interests.
In many ways, Trump’s meeting with al-Sharaa is as momentous, and could be more momentous, than his first-term overtures to Kim Jong Un. The two meetings come from the same wellsprings: Trump is attempting to break longstanding logjams and end the status quo that the foreign policy establishment, both inside the U.S. and elsewhere, had come to take for granted.
NBC News reported Wednesday that Trump announced: “We are currently exploring normalizing relations with Syria’s new government, as you know, beginning with my meeting with President Ahmed al-Sharaa.” Yet he is not proceeding without asking certain things of al-Sharaa as well. NBC reported that he “encouraged Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa to recognize Israel’s statehood.”
Trump explained to al-Sharaa that he had “a tremendous opportunity to do something historic in his country.” The president “urged the Syrian leader to sign on to the Abraham Accords.” He “also advised Sharaa to tell foreign terrorists to leave Syria, deport Palestinian terrorists, help the U.S. prevent the resurgence of the Islamic State and assume responsibility for Islamic State detention centers in Syria’s northeast.” Trump declared that he wanted to give Syria “a chance at greatness.”
So Trump wants to make peace with old foes based on mutual economic interests. He is giving al-Sharaa a chance to demonstrate that he really is no longer a jihadi and wants to build a stable and prosperous Syria. It could happen. The global jihad, although it is ignored everywhere, continues nevertheless. It never goes away. Individuals and states, however, can and do put it aside for considerable periods in order to pursue other interests.
A reminder of how difficult this will be, however, came in the fact that, as NBC noted, “Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was also present and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan joined by phone.” The presence of Erdogan on the phone was a reminder that al-Sharaa has been propped up by Turkish forces, and that many see his forces in Syria as a tool of Erdogan’s interests in restoring the Ottoman caliphate. This is a matter Trump may well have to deal with before too long. Whether or not al-Sharaa is sincere in renouncing jihad, Erdogan seems to be moving in the opposite direction.
Nevertheless, Trump’s attempt to create peace based on common interests and move beyond the present logjam is as welcome as it is audacious. Once again, Trump appears to be way ahead of everyone else, as he was when he established the Abraham Accords even as John Kerry was confidently telling the world that such a thing was impossible.
The establishment will howl at Trump’s meeting; that’s only to be expected. The president, meanwhile, is moving ahead with astonishing vision, immense confidence, and considerable imagination. The peace and stability of the Middle East, and of the entire world, are riding upon his success.
Well put. America should not be in the business of picking the leaders of every single nation in the world.
Yes, it should. They should all be vassals to America.
Nor do we WANT to pick the world’s leaders. ! We Americans voted three times for President Trump. We trust him to do exactly what he says and send NO more young Americans to fight and die in Foreign Wars! We want Peace. Trump wants Peace. We hope the Gulf States will join the Modern World for the good of all and this is the best chance they’ll ever have to do it. Only fools keep doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result ! Trump wants to stop the killing and dying. Let’s just travel this beautiful blue Planet together in Peace and Harmony . We might like it!
Hello Robert. The problem here is ISLAM overrides any “common interests’ between us and them. Ultimately their 1500-year crusade to conquer the world will erupt and resume in another wave of bloodshed against us, Israel and any western nation/society.
You are absolutely right! I cannot recognize Mr. Spencer, alas.
He said “The global jihad, although it is ignored everywhere, continues nevertheless. It never goes away. Individuals and states, however, can and do put it aside for considerable periods in order to pursue other interests.”
Spencer is saying two things…
A) The global jihad “NEVER goes away.”
B) Individuals and states “can and do put it aside for considerable periods in order to pursue other interests.”
I don’t see any contradiction there.
Trump fits the “great man” theory of history. He sees the moment and has a sense of his destiny and place in it. I am glad I lived to see his day.
Or as the ancient Chinese used to say, “He has the mandate of heaven.”
Trump is amazing and thinks out of the box. The man is brilliant. One telling point about Trumps visit to the Middle East is that he left Israel and BiBI off the agenda. That’s a good think. BiBI is a war monger and wants to drag the US into their wars. Bibi doesn’t want peace he wants to continue his control over the indigenous Palestinian people..
Thank you President Trump. You should get the Noble Peace Award.
I think you should be awarded the Nobel Stupidity Award, because it is constant, unwavering and ever present in its, well, stupidity.
Other than a few twinks like you there is, fortunately, no market for your whack thinking. Shouldn’t you be writing for Stormfront?
Trump’s operating principle is that every nation or whatever can be bought for the right price.. The stick supports the carrot.
And exactly this is wrong! “Can be bought for the right price” does not work with Islam, with Bolsheviks, with Putin….
A Jihadist wearing rags, living in a cave… feeding off camels and goats… is still a jihadist…
A jihadist dressed in suits, living in a Trump Tower feeding off steaks and caviar… is still a jihadist…
Money and a great economy doesn’t matter to satanic worshiping muslims… they’re only interested in raping, torturing, murdering and death. They love death more than life…
There will never be peace in the Middle East… never…
The day will come when the Antichrist will sign a false peace treaty with Israel…
The world will be shouting how great the Peace will be… but sudden destruction will come upon them.
It’ll look good on the surface… but… this will usher in the Tribulation… a time when Christians and Jews will be slaughtered.
Who is talking about getting these satanic worshiping muslims to stop killing people !?!?!?
Making a deal with satanic islam is making a deal with the devil…
You speak of this “the Antichrist” as if it described or indicated an individual with agency who can actually DO things. _Please cite chapter and verse in the Bible where this creature is named and described. Not there.
Jesus declared “he who is not with Me is against Me”. John the Revelator gave us a simple test to find out which side a given individual was on. Those who flunk that simple test are described by Jphn as “against, contra, anti (all synonymns) ” Christ. That’s it.
Now you likely confuse those who are “anti-christ” with the one Jesus described as the one who would commit “the abomination of desolation” by defiling the Temple in Jerusalem. Jesus also stated “when you see this thing happen, flee Jerusalem, because destruction is at the door. “. The Jewish historian Josephus records witnessing this abomination thing, and that very soon after Jews began fleeing the city, heading out to the north just as Jesus had told them to. He states about 860,000 beat feet and fled. The date and name of that person doing the abomination thing are known and recorded. Just a few days after the Temple was defiled that man began the utter destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. Now that man was most definitely “against Christ”, but he was certainly NOT “the antichrist” because antichrist is not a person.
this whole false business is the work of a couple of heretical “teachers” who wrote a bunch of such stuff in the early to mid 1800’s. Don’t buy their nonesense.
Gotta give Trump credit for one thing
He’s not stuck in the mud.
Despite all the howling from the Left and whining from the Fake Right
he’s the only one willing to turn over the tables and challenge the Establishment’s presumptions.
Much as I completely doubt his ability to tame Islam’s followers,
I admire his attempts to rein in their more aggressive fringe
and protect all of us from Islam.
That said, I’m not going to hold my breath waiting on Al-Sharaa to become a human being.
He’s already making Assad look like a rational and benign ruler (which he was – relatively – in the dark hole of Islam and tribalism in the ME) …
it’s unlikely this guy can do anything more than he’s done already – shave and wear a suit and hobnob with Eurotrash –
but if Trump can make him save a few lives
the credit goes to Trump. Not Al-Sharaa.
Trump is like James Dalton in Roadhouse.
“All you have to do is follow three simple rules. One, never underestimate your opponent. Expect the unexpected. Two, take it outside. Never start anything inside the bar unless it’s absolutely necessary. And three, be nice.”
He’s President and head bouncer.
I wud “nuke” the kaaba! showing them their phony religion is BS!!!
We should all be extremely concerned about the increased opportunities for the Muslim Gulf states to buy influence as a consequence of this new rapprochement. The Saudis and Qataris already fund virtually all Middle East studies departments within our universities, with pernicious results. Trump must be made to understand that all of the deals he is making must have mechanisms to prevent surreptitious jihad from further infiltrating academia, mass media, politics, the judiciary, and demographics. The last thing we need, for example, is more foreign Muslim students pouring into our colleges, fomenting antisenitism and spreading anti-Israel and anti-Western propaganda, funded by the Saudis and Emiratis who, almost certainly, will deny any involvement, since they are either already signatories to the so-called Abraham Accords, or else claim to be considering signing on at a future date. The televised coverage of the proceedings capture the facial expressions and body language of Elon Musk and Pete Hegseth (who has a “kafir” tattoo in Arabic script on one of his arms); they are clearly uncomfortable with what our president is doing, and rightfully so. I hope that Hegseth has spoken with Trump about the minefield that he has created.
I also thought Hegseth looked uncomfortable. Same impression of Rubio. Though it’s hard to know. That said, the fact that 80% of communication is non-verbal, I can’t fully discount my impressions… And ditto to everything else you said.
Hegseth’s tattoo is a challenge to the forces against us!! It plainly says Infidel. In other words, here I am standing against you. So misunderstood, our military, in this great country which has been misguided. We need them and I personally revere their courage, as Pete displays here.
People saying he has an Arabic tattoo on his right forearm don’t got far enough to learn that reads “كافر” (kafir) in Arabic—a word that translates to “infidel” or “nonbeliever.”
“(Global jihad) never goes away. Individuals and states, however, can
and do put it aside for considerable periods to pursue other interests”.
Bullseye! That’s exactly the point of the Jihadist game of Tacquiya and
patience. If it benefits the tyrannical triumvirate of Saudi Arabia, Syria
and Qatar to fawn over Trump and wheel and deal with him, then that’s
what they’ll do. For now.
President Trump must never forget that dealing with these Sharia-loving
leaders is like dealing with lit dynamite. They are that dangerous to anyone
who isn’t Muslim.
Two points:
1) Trump does not appear to have put any pre-conditions on the arrangements he made with these dictators and jihadists. At the very least, there should have been strings attached. He had leverage and didn’t use it. Why say that he hopes they’ll join the Abraham Accords when he could have made that a pre-condition to some or all of what he offered? Why ignore the slaughter of Christians in Syria including just a couple of weeks prior to this visit? Why legitimize and elevant Qatar who we know is a major supporter of terror around the world and who has infiltrated every institution in the United States toward evil ends? Etc…..
2) I wonder if Mr. Spencer would have written this glowing report if it was a Democrat president who did what Trump did in the ME these past few days. Somehow I doubt it. Mr. Spencer knows better than most that Islam plays the long game and it is ever-moving toward supremacy even when cloaked in lavish shows and actions dripping with performative warmth and grace.
To read THIS from YOU (of all) is nearly shocking for me, Mr. Spencer! You, the best specialist and realistic thinker on islam, is writing now such a crap as remaking of “old foes based on mutual economic interests”? “To create peace based on common interests” with islam?! With the Wahhabism in particular?! To create peace when every stone there already knows what to scream when a Jew hides behind it?!
What has happened to you, Mr. Spencer?! From you, I didn’t expect such a “transformation”!
100% in agreement.
It feels like Trump is betraying us with his ME strategy and now to read Robert Spencer writing such drivel is shocking beyond belief.
Mr. Spencer and many others (several here at FPM) educated me over the years through their blogs, books, and interviews. I am forever grateful for their brave voices that have told the truth in the face of outrageousm, and sometimes violent and life-htreatening, opposition. And so, after following his work for many years and looking to him as a voice of facts, not fiction, it is mystifying and disappointing to read this piece. Would never have expected this from him.
No transformation – just realpolitik.
Only Jesus can transform Islam in a day.
Trump took a baby step in his negotiation with the enemy and that is a step in the right direction.
What do you expect Trump to do? Nuke Dubai or Abu Dhabi?
What you should do is to be glad Trump is not another Leftard or worse – a neocon – promising to sell the store to the enemy for a more money to crush their enemies at home.
If you want to criticize Trump – it should be for not doing enough to cut off Muslim funding on our souls.
There is a huge difference between what ought to be – had we not been under the thumb of traitors for decades –
and what can be done now with the cards that are on the table.
To begin with, this article is by Mr. Spencer (not by Trump) on islam, and my comment was about the article by Mr. Spencer (not by Trump). Therefore, I was shocked that Mr. Spencer (of all) wrote this “realpolitik propaganda” about islam.
As to President Trump’s a$$-kissing of the Saudis and other night shirts of that region, your term “realpolitik” does not apply at all because there are no such circumstances that MANDATED Pres. Trump to go there for his tour of a$$-kissing. Nor is there now any need to nuke Dubai or Abu Dhabi: just to stay far away from them!
President Trump there spoke terrible things. As to his new course on isolationism, I welcome it, but only if it begins here in the US.
MR. PRESIDENT! ISOLATE AMERICA FROM ISLAM! RID OF ISLAM IN AMERICA!
You are right, Mr Gofen, it IS shocking – but only if you don’t understand Mr Spencer’s agenda. He is a devout Christian and all his efforts are to protect them from their historical (and implacable) enemy, Islam. As such, Jews are his temporary and useful “ally”. He will dump them as soon as he is able to. They (I, among them) are still the assassins of Christ, nicht wahr? As to Evangelical hypocrisy, I’d call Jesus, Yeshua Ben Ba’al, since it’s the demands of the Canaanite god to sacrifice their children to him that the Christian god demanded.
As to blaming Jews for it, my answer is that it’s like a father coming from a burning building. He’s asked, “what about the baby?”. He answers, “I didn’t start the fire”. You Christians can’t get away with the Holocaust (and the 2000 years of lesser holocausts) so easily. Remember the six stages of forgiveness: rejoicing, regret, remorse, renunciation, restitution, and only then reconciliation – and then forgiveness. You are only halfway through regret (“sorry it happened, but it’s not our fault”).
Most of the commenters here are Christian and your patience is admirable. No Thumbs down, even though my post was hostile – and I won’t apologize for my hostility to Christianity, HOWEVER, that doesn’t apply to all Christians. I’ve met many who are warm and kind and wouldn’t hurt anyone, That doesn’t mean they love Jews; they love people.
You can say “many” or even “most” but you can never say “all”. That makes logic very difficult and politics almost impossible. It is the reason for the American maxim of “never argue over religion or politics”. They make you forget your humanity.
*soil … not souls
Freudian slip?
Unless they renounce the Jihad, this agreement is worthless.